Jan Lammers

Born : June 2 1956

Biography Jan Lammers

Jan Lammers was born in Zandvoort, the Netherlands and grew up with the sounds of racing cars due to the presence of the Zandvoort Racing Track in the dunes close to his home. Jan Lammers started working in the drifting school in Zandvoort washing cars as a young kid. Rob Slotemaker, a known dutch racing driver and the owner of the drifting school, allowed Jan Lammers to start showing to customers how to drift a car in a safe way. Jan Lammers was only 12 at that time, and as soon as Rob Slotemaker noticed the talent of the young Jan Lammers, he encouraged him to pursue a career in motorsports. The first race of Jan Lammers was at the age of 16, ofcourse in Zandvoort. Later Jan Lammers moved to the Dutch touring car championship and Formula Ford races before moving up to European Formula 3 in 1977. 

In 1979 Jan Lammers moved up to the highest one can achieve in motorsports and started racing in F1 with Shadow. His teammate was Elio de Angelis.  The highlight of the F1 career of Jan Lammers was a 4th place in Long Beach qualifying in 1980.  In 1988, Jan Lammers, together with Andy Wallace and Johnny Dumfries, won the Le Mans 24 Hours with the Silk Cut Jaguar/TWR team. Lammers drove 13 out of the 24 hours, and beat the Porsche team who had remained unbeaten since 1981. Jan Lammers and the team managed to finish first despite a broken gearbox. It was the first victory for Jaguar since 1957.

Jan Lammers and Porsche

In the mid-eighties, Jan Lammers drove a Porsche 965 and Porsche 962 in the toughest endurance race of the world : the Le Mans 24H and the Daytona 24H. In 2007, Jan Lammers starts at the wheel of a Porsche RS Spyder in the Le Mans Series, for the Swiss Horag Racing Team. In his personal life, Jan Lammers is a fan of Porsche too. In 2011, he takes delivery of his personal Porsche Cayman R at the Porsche Center Eindhoven. In 2017, Jan Lammers can fulfill a childhood dream when he takes the wheel of a Porsche 917 for some demo laps at the Zandvoort Historic GP.

Awards

For this amazing exploits, Jan Lammers received the title Honorary Member of the BRDC, a title rarely awarded to non-British residents. Famous names that also received this award are Enzo Ferrari and Juan Manuel Fangio. In 1990 Lammers won the 24 Hours of Daytona driving a Jaguar XJR-12 along with Davy Jones and Andy Wallace.

24 Hours of Le Mans Results

24 Hours of Daytona Results

(key)